Sunday, March 18, 2007

Fast Food Nation

Oh, the impact that movies have on our lives... Last week Chris and I saw Fast Food Nation, a film that explores the fast food industry, specifically the meat suppliers and their work/health ethics. I did ok until the end of the movie when they showed the "kill" room in the slaughterhouse. Ugh. Vomit central. Consequently, we are currently exploring non-cow/pig products. My mom had this saying growing up that she didn't want to eat anything that she couldn't personally kill. And knowing my mom, I have no doubt that she would take out a cow if it meant feeding her family. But...I'm not quite so brave. To Chris' chagrin a couple years ago, I proved myself to be very non-alaskan by being unable to kill a salmon while on a fishing trip. Thankfully, I was able to redeem myself a bit the next year by pounding the heck out of a fish with a rock. But I'm still not the fearless hunter type. And while I don't really like cows (seriously folks, they are crap (50 pounds a day!) and methane producing machines), I think I'd have a hard time killing one. So, that puts us in an interesting position, beef-wise. I'm pretty sure I could kill a chicken. Yep, I'm pretty sure about that. So, this week we explored turkey hot dogs, chicken sausage and tofu. Yum. We'll see how long this little thing lasts. :)

3 comments:

What you couldn't kill a cow? Good luck with not eating beef this week. You realize that's how I became a non-meat eater, I cut out beef and pork first. Then I got really sick of chicken and had to stop eating it. Thankfully I still eat fish.Even though cows are very dumb and messy I have to admit I do like them and would love just to have one. Yes, I'm a bit odd.

No, I think lots of people would like to have a cow. I was doing some work at a site that had a resident herd of cows and we adopted one for the week. "Daisy" greeted us every morning when we pulled up to the site. I would love to have goats. My parents have a sod roof on their garage and for a while we contemplated the idea of having a pygmy goat up there to keep the grass clipped.

It's been an interesting week in terms of eating. I broke my vow almost immediately because I'd just bought several packages of humbow (I don't know how you spell it) that were filled with BBQ pork-my favorite! I decided that since I'd bought them pre-movie experience, I wasn't going to waste them. Same thing with the hamburgers we had last night. I didn't eat beef or pork for about two years in college but I couldn't give up poultry or seafood. Eventually I went back to eating red meat but we've been trying to limit our intake. I think Chris was most disgusted by the stats on beef: something like 11 pounds of grain is required just to produce one pound of beef.

just watched Fast Food Nation, it's an impactful flick to say the least... earlier today i passed up a sausage mcmuffin because of it. Evidently it is worth passing up fast food for more than health reasons.